"I was blind, but now I see!"

Recently, I've been noticing a pattern in my listening and my reading... the sinful life means blindness. I know that the sinful life is so much worse than that. It is blindness, but it is also lying and hurting and hating and cheating and so many other things. But several times recently, I know that the Lord is pointing out that the sinful life is especially blind. Think about it. I don't know where it was, but there's that verse where it says, "the blind leading the blind." And there is that old favorite song of so many people across the ages, "Amazing Grace."

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see."

And another two songs, more recent this time, "Take Me Higher" by Jars of Clay:

"To where the blind can see the stars

So do you see the stars, do you see the stars?"

And a song from Newsboys, which at the moment I can't remember. But my point is that what happens after you go through the incredible Grace of God, but finally get to see. We, who are Christ followers, can see the stars now! We are saved from our blindness!
And just tonight, I read Isaiah 42:16:

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them:
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them."

I love that last part, "I will not forsake them." But it's creepy the way He follows it up with:

"But those who trust in idols,

who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back in utter shame."

Wow! That is actually really scary, at least for me! Just change that word, "idols", for words like "news anchors", "reality TV people", "American Idol" or characters on my favorite show. I don't have problems with some of those, but I have to admit to some. And they are idols of my eyes. Of what I say I can see, but of which I only know whats on the surface. I do trust in them--far too implicitly!
I think it's time I start to be led on those "unfamiliar paths", and stop pretending I know more through what I already know will deceive me. We are blind; let's let the Lord show us how to see.

Shalom